NOAA and Sea Grant are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2022 class of the Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program. The one-year fellowship places early career professionals in federal government offices in Washington, D.C. The 74 finalists in the 2022 class represent 28 of the 34 Sea Grant programs. Since 1979, almost 1,500 fellows have completed the program, becoming leaders in science, policy, and public administration roles. Knauss finalists are chosen through a competitive process that includes comprehensive review at both the state Sea Grant program and national levels. Students that are enrolled in or have recently completed master’s, Juris Doctor (J.D.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) programs with a focus and/or interest in marine and coastal science, policy or management apply to one of the 34 Sea Grant programs. If applicants are successful at the state program level, their applications are then reviewed by a national panel of experts. Rutgers Graduate Students Janine Barr, Schuyler Nardelli, Ashlyn Spector and Elizabeth Wright-Fairbanks were all chosen. CONGRATS! Click Here for the full article from NOAA.

Last week our glider guru Nicole Waite was out with our grad students Ted and Ailey, and our Rutgers RIOS undergrads Becca and Jocelyn on a dual glider deployment off of Tuckerton NJ. Capt. Chip Haldeman took the crew out on the R/V/ Arabella to deploy gliders MARACOOS02 and RU30. MARACOOS02 will be focusing on studying the effects on the ocean from passing tropical storms this summer (funded through MARACOOS) and RU30 will be studying pH trends off NJ (funded by NOAA). Of course, both gliders will gather plenty of info on temperature, oxygen, currents, water visibility etc, all of which is available for viewing on our RUCOOL glider pages.

Researchers from Rutgers are analyzing the response of the ocean to the recent passage of Tropical Storm Elsa.  The storm was modelled in real time by the Rutgers Weather Research and Forecasting model (RUWRF).  The animation shows the surface winds as the storm moved past the Jersey Shore.  The ocean surface currents were captured by the MARACOOS High Frequency Radar (HFR) Network which is supported by U.S IOOS.  The animation shows the surface currents along with the 6-hour best track of the storm from the National Hurricane Center.  The best track was interpolated to hourly positions to map to the update frequency of the HFR maps. Tropical Storm Elsa moved north along the coast in a track similar to Hurricane Irene in 2011.  Ahead of the eye the currents were onshore but weak.  The strongest currents were observed alongshore to the right of the eye as it moved past New Jersey.  This is in contrast to Hurricane Irene which displayed strong cross-shore currents and weak along-shelf currents (Glenn et al. 2016).

Congratulations to Emily on receiving award from an AFS John E. Skinner Memorial Award. The Skinner Award is intended to assist with expenses to attend the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society.

ATLANTIC CITY — A company hoping to build a wind power farm off the coast of southern New Jersey is partnering with Rutgers University and the state’s clam industry to study the potential impacts of wind farms on the shellfish. Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, LLC said Thursday it is funding a $500,000 study of how New Jersey’s valuable clam industry might be impacted by offshore wind farms over the next 30 years. The study also will take the possible impacts of climate change into account. It will also examine the economics of the clam industry in the lease area in which Atlantic Shores hopes to build its projects, as well as in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, a coastal region running from Massachusetts to North Carolina. Full article at The Press of Atlantic City

Nicole Waite, Marine and Lab Technician at Rutgers University, Center for Ocean Observing Leadership Nicole has been working as a professional in ocean sciences since 2014 at Rutgers, with a focus split between Antarctic phytoplankton and underwater gliders. “I have been in the ocean science field since undergrad when I graduated with a degree in Marine Biology from the University of New England. Following that, I interned in a seagrass ecology lab at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama.” Following her internship, she attended graduate school and received a Master’s in Oceanography from Rutgers University in 2014. Nicole first joined MTS as a graduate student in 2013. She has been an active member of the organization as an instructor on underwater gliders for MTS sponsored technology training camps. As an ECOP member, Nicole said she finds “the ECOP category to be highly valuable for the community and getting connected with other younger professionals in the field.” She said she is looking forward to getting more involved and to attending “events or meetings to connect research and academic institutes with industry – not just technology manufacturers, but industry wanting to get involved with research/technology use as well.” For more information on ECOPs, contact Joshua Baghdady to join or visit HERE.

A new study from the University of Agder shows that animals are part of the natural carbon cycle process that absorbs greenhouse gas emissions… Angela Helen Martin, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Natural Sciences at University of Agder, recently published a review article on how fishes and other animals affect greenhouse gases in the ocean. One of her conclusions is that there is a need to consider how animals affect carbon in order to design effective management of carbon in ocean habitats and of marine vertebrate populations. The review article was published in the journal One Earth. Martin’s co-authors were Heidi C. Pearson at University of Alaska Southeast, Grace K. Saba at Rutgers University and Esben M. Olsen at the Institute of Marine Research (Havforskningsinstituttet) and UiA. Full article at Phys.org